


Chemistry and Plastic Wrap

by NebulousMistress



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: College Trio, F/M, Gen, elements of Vlad/Maddie, lab accident, of the ordinary kind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:28:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26005720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NebulousMistress/pseuds/NebulousMistress
Summary: Junior year of college, three years before the protoportal blew. Maddie had an incident in chemistry lab and now Jack and Vlad have to help her through it.
Kudos: 10





	Chemistry and Plastic Wrap

**Author's Note:**

> This is heavily based off of a real lab accident that happened to me in an Advanced Physical Chemistry Lab. The scars have faded.
> 
> This story was originally written in 2012

Maddie stumbled up the stairs to her apartment. She'd just wasted eight hours in chem lab trying desperately to salvage the past two weeks worth of work to no avail. It was lost, all of it lost when the purification failed.

She fumbled with the keys. When the door was opened by a man with a pair of concerned blue eyes she just squinted and blinked before trudging past him to the comfy couch and falling face first onto it.

"Bad day?" Vlad asked.

Maddie groaned. The slamming of pots and pans did not help her budding headache. "Jack..." she groaned. "Shut up."

"Sorry Maddie." Jack's voice drifted from the tiny apartment kitchen as the metallic clanging lessened marginally. "I'm making dinner!"

"Are you hungry?" Vlad asked, kneeling on the floor next to the couch. He rubbed Maddie's shoulder as she kept her head buried in the couch cushions.

She shook her head. All she wanted right now was the comfy couch, for Vlad to keep rubbing her back like that, and maybe a shot of whiskey. Or two.

Moving in with her two best friends had been an excellent idea. The apartment was small, not much more than 600 square feet. One bedroom and one bathroom shared between the three of them. Not enough room for three beds so one of them usually ended up sleeping on the couch. A kitchen the size of a postage stamp. Not enough room for a dining table; usually they ate sprawled on the floor or sitting on the couch. But it was on the bus line. They weren't stuck on campus anymore, they could work on their projects for all hours of the day and night without dealing with meddlesome R.A.s or skeptical so-called "peers". Their ghost portal ideas were a few years off but here they could work on theory without having to hide.

Jack plunked down next to the couch with a full plate of what he'd made for dinner: tomato sauce and big chunks of canned ham served over rice. "So how'd it go?" he asked, mouth full.

Vlad stole a big chunk of ham from Jack's plate and popped it in his mouth. He ignored Jack's protests, pretending he hadn't done anything while he rubbed Maddie's shoulders.

"UGH today bites," she groaned, face pressed into the couch. She pulled her head up before resting her chin on the couch arm. "We couldn't get the purification to work right. The macrocycle complex was soluble in nothing. Nothing! Nothing we used worked! Not ether, not chloroform, not methanol, not water, not hexane, not nothing! Not at any temperature! So my lab partner made the genius idea of using DMSO. And the test made it look like it was gonna work! Great! We finally have something! Except no! It can't BE that simple because he forgot that DMSO has this bogus high boiling point and we mirrored a flask last week and the TA said he was gonna be pissed if we did it again. So we tried to use the vacuum pump."

Vlad cringed.

"What?" Jack asked, mouth full.

"I know that vacuum pump," Vlad said. "It leaks so bad."

"It does," Maddie said. "And it wouldn't hold enough of a seal to do anything. The damned thing is this whole maze of tubes and one's cracked somewhere and the department says they're working on it but of course they're not going to get to it this term. The undergrad labs just aren't a high priority! So we can't get a seal and my stupid-ass partner decided to just boil it anyway and so we end up mirroring the flask and I don't know if the TA's going to let us back in now! Even if he does that was two weeks of work that we just lost because my idiot lab partner doesn't want to listen to 'the little woman'! UGH!"

"That dick!" Jack snapped.

"Jack," Vlad warned, giving him a glare.

Maddie pressed her face back into the couch arm. She scratched at her arm as an itch started to make itself known. "Jack..." she groaned. "I don't want you doing anything stupid. I don't want you or Vlad trying to defend me when I don't need defending."

Jack pouted. That pout lasted until Vlad reached over to steal another chunk of ham. "Hey!"

Vlad popped the chunk in his mouth, pretending to ignore Jack's outrage with his own exaggerated sense of self-importance. Jack responded by plunking his plate on the floor and tackling Vlad. The two went sprawling across the floor.

Maddie watched her two best friends wrestling on the apartment floor. Jack had Vlad in a headlock while Vlad was punching Jack over and over in the side, the both of them giggling and snorting. She rolled over onto her side so she could get a better view as Jack grabbed Vlad by the shirt and Vlad escaped by wiggling out of it. The wrestling continued while Maddie catcalled them on, absently scratching that itch that seemed to be spreading.

It wasn't long before the floor echoed with the sound of a broom handle being slammed into the ceiling of the apartment below them. Jack stopped where he was, right in the middle of holding Vlad above his head like he was going to throw his skinny friend down on the floor.

"Jack, put me down!" Vlad demanded.

"Oh! Right." Jack snapped back into focus and put his shirtless friend down. Vlad looked overly posh for a moment, brushing imaginary dust off of an imaginary shirt.

"Don't stop on their account," Maddie said.

Jack and Vlad grinned at her before settling back down where they started. Jack picked up his dinner and went back to eating while Vlad noticed Maddie was scratching. "Bug bite?" he asked.

"I don't know," Maddie admitted. "I just itch all over." She sat up and rubbed her spine against the back of the couch, trying to scratch like a bear against a tree. It didn't work, the couch was too soft, but it got her point across.

"Here, lie down on the floor and let me see," Vlad offered. Maddie crawled off the couch onto the floor. She let Vlad guide her, laying on the floor on her stomach while he lifted her shirt. "Well, I don't see anything," he said. "So you don't have the measles."

"Thank you, Doctor Obvious," she mumbled.

"Unless this is the problem." He grinned evilly and unlatched the back of her bra.

"Hey!" She sat up, yanking her shirt back down before grabbing him and shoving him to the floor while he laughed.

"Woooo," Jack called. "Take it off!"

Maddie reached under her shirt, pulled off her bra, and threw it into Jack's face. "There! It's off! Happy now?"

"Quite," Vlad said, eyeing her chest and the perky nipples that poked through the thin fabric of her t-shirt. Jack nodded, his eyes fixed on the same sight.

"You're both hopeless," she said, getting up and wandering into the bedroom. Still, she couldn't help the grin plastered to her face.

*****

Maddie itched. She itched really bad. Scratching helped a little bit but she didn't have enough fingernails to get rid of the itching. It hurt so much, she itched so bad that it was hard to think. The headache wasn't helping with that either. Something was wrong, something she wasn't entirely sure she could place.

Then the door opened.

"Oh my god."

Maddie blinked up at a pair of blue eyes, not entirely sure... "Jack?" she asked.

"Vlad, come here," Jack said. Vlad popped his head through the bedroom door and went as still as Jack had.

Maddie's skin was pale with red streaks all over where she'd been scratching. Several streaks had turned into gouges where she'd started to take the skin off, gouges that were starting to smear red with blood. She blinked at them, her pupils pinpointed and just a little bit blank.

"Oh my god," Vlad said.

Maddie started scratching again, frantically trying to dispel the itch.

"Maddie, stop it," Jack said. She ignored him. He stormed in and grabbed her hands. "Please stop scratching! You're making yourself bleed."

"No I'm not!"

Jack took one of her hands and forced her fingers to spread. Her fingernails were white with flaked skin, wet with interstitial fluid, red with blood. She stared down at them, not comprehending what she was seeing. That fact scared her more than the realization that she was scratching her skin off. "Jack..." she whimpered.

"We've got to get her to a hospital," Vlad said.

"And what good will that do?" Jack asked. "They don't know what she was exposed to. They'll do supportive care and hope. Maddie, what was this?"

"They were recrystalizing with DMSO," Vlad said. "DMSO absorbs through the skin like it's not even there and takes whatever's dissolved in it with it. The macrocycle's likely too big to affect her systematically. Her body's trying to expel it through her skin."

"Oh that's freaky," Jack said.

"We've got to get her to sweat it out."

"What if that doesn't work?" she asked.

"If it doesn't work then we'll get you to a hospital," Vlad promised. "But first I have an idea."

Maddie nodded. Hard though it was to think right now she didn't want to go to a hospital and be left in a room while she itched and itched and scratched and scratched.

"Jack, get the plastic wrap."

Jack jumped up and was halfway out the bedroom door when he stopped and turned around with a confused look on his face. "How in hell is that going to help?" he asked.

"Just get it," Vlad pleaded. "If we don't have at least two rolls of plastic wrap in the kitchen then you'll need to go buy more. Take my car if you need to."

Jack nodded and headed back to the kitchen. A few slammed cupboards later and the front door opened, followed by the sound of Jack's footsteps pounding down the stairs.

Vlad sighed before turning to look at Maddie, really look at her. She was covered in a sheen of sweat, broken only by the lines she's scratched into herself. Her eyes were a bit glazed, probably from the maddening itch. She squirmed almost frantically as he held her hands, not letting them go. He wished he could, he wished he could let her scratch the horrid itching that was driving her to tears, but he knew she'd only be hurting herself more. No, this had to be taken care of without letting her scratch. Without letting anything scratch. He hoped his plan worked.

"What are you going to do?" Maddie asked.

"First we're going to get you out of those clothes," Vlad said. "They're likely covered in whatever's making you itch. Then when Jack gets back we're going to mummify you in plastic wrap so you'll sweat it all out."

"Mummify me?"

"It's not that hard," Vlad promised. "At least I don't think it will be. We'll wrap up your arms and legs separately then we'll go over everything from your toes to your neck."

"This sounds weird," Maddie said, giving Vlad a strange look.

"I know it does, it sounds weird to me too. But if it'll make you stop itching..."

Maddie nodded and sat up, pulling her hands from Vlad's. She took off her shirt and threw it to the floor. Her hands almost went to her stomach, nails ready to claw at her skin but she stopped. Barely. Her hands shook as she stopped herself, a whimper escaping her lips. Vlad's hands went back to hold hers. "Shh, you're doing really good," Vlad said. "It won't be long now and then the itching will be gone. I promise."

Maddie nodded, sniffing as she tried not to cry. It just hurt so much...

"Here, let me help you get out of these pants," Vlad offered. He let go of her hands, watching them to make sure she didn't go back to scratching. He smiled at her when they went to start pulling at buttons. His hands went to her waistband and tugged, gently pulling pants and panties down in the same slow tug. He'd been wanting to do this to her for awhile now but never had he imagined it would be in such a desperate, clinical situation.

Her hands went to her thighs and started to scratch. Vlad grabbed them again. "Lift your hips for me, my dear?" he asked. She did and he stuck her hands under her butt. "Now hold these for me, okay?" Maddie nodded and sat down on her hands.

"Good girl," he praised as he headed down to the foot of the bed. She still had her lab shoes on and that was not helping. He took his time undoing the laces and pulling them off, finally able to pull her clothing off the rest of the way.

He looked up the length of her body. Her skin was pale and clammy. The worst of the itching seemed to be on her upper torso and her arms, gauging by the damage. Still. Her legs were long and smooth. Her hips were full and round, the perfect size for running his hands over. Her waist curved in beautifully despite the slight belly from two and a half years on dining hall food. Her breasts rose large and perky from her fluttering chest. Further up to the long lines of her neck to her round face, high cheekbones, her beautiful violet eyes and her thick red hair. He didn't care that those eyes were glazed with pain and a little bit of fear or that her hair was limp and plastered to her face and neck by sweat.

"So how do I look, Doctor?" Maddie asked.

Vlad gave her a soft smile. If she could still mock him then she'd be okay. "I'm not a doctor yet," he said.

"And you never will be that type of doctor if you stay in physics."

Vlad gave her a look that assured her he was playing. She was about to say something when the front door slammed open and Jack ran in with two fistfuls of grocery bags.

"Jack, I said I needed two rolls, not two dozen," Vlad admonished.

"I thought you might need more," Jack said. "And what if this happens again?" He paused, realizing the scene, and blushed. "You're naked."

"Her clothes are covered in chemical," Vlad said.

"Ah, right," Jack said. He then pulled a couple of bottles out of one of the bags. "You said we're going to make her sweat out the macro-thingy so I thought this might help."

Vlad looked at the bottles of yellow-green electrolyte solution before fixing Jack with a look of pleased shock. "Why, Jack, you had a good idea!"

Jack picked up one of the rolls of plastic wrap and bopped Vlad on the head with it. Vlad stuck his tongue out at his large friend. Maddie rolled her eyes and giggled at their antics.

Vlad snatched the roll from Jack and tore it open. "Okay. Let's get to work."

*****

Cold.

She was freezing cold and burning hot at the same time. It made no sense but nor did the fact that she couldn't move. She could shift and maybe squirm but movement was stopped by a tight constricting feeling and the rustle of plastic. Her skin crawled with the combination of sensory overload and the burning need to scratch, scratch everywhere but she couldn't move her hands, she couldn't even move her fingers, what was happening? What was wrong? Tears welled up in her eyes.

Jack was on the couch clutching a teddy bear, Vlad's beat-up old record player spinning nearby. He hadn't put a record on and the needle knocked against the spindle as the turntable spun uselessly.

From the doorway Vlad watched her, his heart clenched in his chest. His darling Maddie, one of his best friends, squirmed and cried as he stood aside, unable to do anything to help her. Well, almost nothing. He grabbed a bottle of the electrolyte Jack had bought and a bottle of pills from the medicine cabinet. He could do something.

He could make her sleep through the worst of it.

Jack looked up and saw the pills in Vlad's hand. "Vladdy..." Jack warned.

Vlad held up the bottle. "Allergy pills," he said. "They might help with the itching. The worst they'll do is let her sleep through the worst of this."

Jack nodded and went back to snuggling his teddy bear.

Vlad sat on the bed next to Maddie. He brushed a few strands of sweat-soaked hair off of her face. "I know you hate these but they'll make you feel better," he said, holding up the bottle. He shook out a few pills then a few more. He pulled her up into a sitting position and gave her the pills, holding the bottle of electrolyte so she could drink. He kept it there so she would drink the whole bottle. "That's it... I know you hate the taste but you need to drink it all."

She struggled a bit but calmed down in a few moments, allowing him to force her to drink. A few tears leaked from her eyes. Once the bottle was empty he tossed it in the corner and eased her back onto the bed. She coughed and sniffed.

Vlad made a decision, pulling off his shoes and lying down on the bed next to her. He didn't want to see her suffer like this, neither did Jack. But maybe Jack could live with hiding on the couch wallowing in his own pity. Vlad couldn't. He wasn't going to leave her alone like this.

Soon her eyes drifted shut as the drug kicked in. He kissed her cheek and threw an arm over her chest, his head resting on her pillow.

He'd be here when she woke up.


End file.
